1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fan type chemical diffusing apparatus for volatilizing and diffusing a chemical in an airflow produced by a motor driven fan or blower, and a receptacle for the chemical for use with such a fan type chemical diffusing apparatus, as well as a clip type fastening device for fastening a fan type chemical diffusing apparatus to an object such as apparel of its user.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objects of the Invention
A fan type chemical diffusing apparatus designed to volatilize and diffuse a chemical in an airflow produced by a motor driven fan has been known as described in JP S53-14329 A.
The apparatus described in that patent literature comprises a cylindrical housing that constitutes an apparatus main body equipped with a motor and fan, in which a cartridge is interchangeably loaded. That contains a battery and a chemical retainer which holds a chemical therein. The fan is driven by the motor to produce an airflow with which the chemical in the cartridge is allowed to volatilize and diffuse into the atmosphere. At the end point of the chemical at which it has been fully consumed, the cartridge including the battery is disposed of and the apparatus is reused on loading with a new cartridge.
In the conventional apparatus mentioned above, however, in which a cartridge is designed to be accommodated in the cylindrical housing of a given and limited size, the cartridge must be limited in size by the size of the cylindrical housing, and so must naturally be limited the battery in the number of battery cells and the chemical retainer (chemical accommodating receptacle) in size, too. The known apparatus has therefore been deficient for services of an extended time period and unsatisfactory if an increase in efficacy is sought.
Also in the known apparatus, the power supply is disposed in a place where the airflow produced by the fan comes into contact with it. This battery arrangement thus creating a resistance to the blowing airflow has had the inconvenience that it makes the chemical volatilized, and diffused inefficiently.
It is accordingly a first object of the present invention with the above taken into account to provide a fan type chemical diffusing apparatus that comprises an apparatus main body, a chemical receptacle and an power supply housing which are made independent in volume (size) from one another to permit their respective variations in volume to be prepared based on its single basic design and selectively combined one with another, thereby making it possible to easily produce variations of the fan type chemical volatilizing and diffusing apparatus of the common design that vary in the amount of the chemical contained and the length of the time period with respect to the airflow amount by the fan for each service cycle while solving the abovementioned problems met in the prior art.
Also, the conventional chemical receptacle includes a receptacle main body having a cylindrical wall whose one end is closed with an end wall formed with a large number of vent holes and a cap body having a cylindrical wall whose one end is closed with an end wall formed with a large number of vent holes. The receptacle main and cap bodies are brought together to form the chemical receptacle by fitting the cylindrical wall of the cap body over an outer surface of the cylindrical wall of the receptacle main body and thereby the outer end surface of the cylindrical wall of the main body is against the inner surface of the end wall of the cap body.
Such a conventional chemical receptacle has the problem that when the receptacle main body is loaded from its open top with a chemical impregnated body such as a mass of beads impregnated with a chemical so they rise slightly above its brim and then the cap body is fitted over the main body, a faction of the chemical impregnated particles tends to be pinched between the outer end surface of the cylindrical wall of the main body and the inner surface of the end wall of the cap body, which prevents the cap body from tightly fitting with the receptacle main body.
Also, since the pinched chemical impregnated particles are not exposed to the airflow passing through the chemical receptacle, the chemical impregnated into these particles is hindered from volatilization and thus becomes useless.
Also, having axially opposite portions not identical in form, the conventional chemical receptacle when slide-fitted to the chemical receptacle retaining portion of the power supply housing can be fitted only from one side and cannot be fitted from the other side; hence hard to assemble.
It is therefore a second object of the present invention with the above taken into account to provide a chemical receptacle for a fan type chemical volatilizing and diffusing apparatus in which the chemical impregnated particles are kept from getting into an interstice between the receptacle main body and the cap body, and has its axially opposite portions made identical in the shape which either can be fitted to the chemical receptacle retaining portion, thereby facilitating its assembling.
Also, the conventional fan type chemical diffusing apparatus is commonly provided on its outer wall with a clip type fastener formed of an elastically deformable, tongue leaf like clip. This clip has its root portion attached and united to a support mount formed on the outer wall side of the apparatus main body in an insertion assembling method or the like. As its shape is viewed from its side, this clip has an area near its root portion that is the most spaced from the outer wall of the apparatus main body, an intermediate portion extending from that area towards its end portion and the most approaching the outer wall to provide a pressure foot portion for the clip, and the end portion where it leaps away from the outer wall, describing a circular arc. And, fitting the clip onto such an object as the hem of a pocket of the upper wear or the waist belt causes the object to be inserted and caught between the clip's pressure foot portion and the outer wall of the fan type chemical diffusing apparatus, and thereby this portable apparatus to be fastened and suspended.
By the way, with a conventional clip type fastening device as described above, the inconvenience has so far been met that the apparatus fastened tends to slip off the object to fall down while the user is at work. This has been found to be by reason of the fact that the surface of the wall to which the clip's pressure foot portion opposes is flat. Then, the force of the clip which effectively exerts to grip the object acts only on the space between the clip's pressure foot portion and the outer wall and, even if the gap between them is assumed to be zero, the force is limited only on the area lying between them. Then, if the object caught between them is so thin as the hem of a pocket, the force to grip it would be too weak to firmly fasten the apparatus of some weight to such an object from which it is suspended.
On the other hand, a thick wear or a waist belt as the object gripped which gives greater deformation to the clip provides greater force to grip therefor without the above inconvenience but, if the object is of a slippy material, the flatness of the surface of the outer wall as its counterpart inconveniently tends to cause the object to slip off the clip and the apparatus here again tends to slip off the object to fall.
While it is possible to increase the force to grip by the pressure foot portion by incorporating the clip into the support mount on the apparatus main body so that the pressure foot portion is held in elastic contact with the outerwall surface under a given pressure, this measure inconveniently not only complicates assembling the clip with the apparatus main body but also poses a problem of strength on the clip by the fact that a large force constantly is left to act on its root portion.
It is therefore a third object of the present invention to eliminate these inconvenience met in the prior art, and to provide a clip type fastening device that can be fastened to an object, regardless of whether it is thin or thick while holding the object caught thereby.